Comic Process?

[Prettysenshi]

Me and my friend were discussing it in chat and we're baffled by how clean the pages turn out, despite being done traditionally. She thought it was done digitally, but I had to tell her otherwise. But now I'm curious. So like, what's the comic process?

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

Hmmm, first I write down what I want to happen on the page, and then draw a crude thumbnail sketch to decide how to organize it in a sequence. Then I draw the panels out, and the begin drawing. Here is a penciled version of a page:



I then ink the page with several different tools. The figure are inked with a Winsor & Newton series 7 brush size 2, with Higgins Black Magic india ink. The objects are inked with a 107 hawk quill dip pen, and smaller details are done with a 102 crow quill and a 005 Pigma Micron. Lately I've been using a Faber Castell PITT brush pen for the larger figures since it forces me to make thicker lines. The lettering is done with a Koh-I-Noor .50 technical pen filled with india ink. Here is the finished page scanned in color mode:



You can see the brush strokes and different shades of black. When scanned in line art mode, the variations are no longer visible:



I fill in the outsides with black so that it blends in with the webpage. Photobucket does something weird to the images, so it looks crisper on the actual site.

[Caliwindrunner]

I have a question (albeit probably stupid sounding), What size paper do you do the comics on. My friend can do them on things like the standard 8.5x11 but he prefers the A4. I just wonder, because due to the actual size of the comic online, one (me mostly) cant really tell how big these drawings really are.

[Prettysenshi]

That was fast, thanks!!

So you don't have the whole story written down? Most creators do. I personally have trouble writing out the whole entire story before drawing.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

I have the main outline for the entire story written out first. But I like to keep things organic and in the moment, so the actual scripting is done only a week ahead, sometimes just a few days before I'm supposed to post. That way I can either embellish a certain event, add somethings, or shorten and even remove certain things that I don't like.

I have a question (albeit probably stupid sounding), What size paper do you do the comics on. My friend can do them on things like the standard 8.5x11 but he prefers the A4. I just wonder, because due to the actual size of the comic online, one (me mostly) cant really tell how big these drawings really are.

This the paper I've been drawing on currently: http://www.bluelinepro.com/Merchant2/me ... y_Code=pro

Some of the older pages were done on 11x15 inch bristol, and later 14x17 inch Bristol with the image area being 10x15. The current paper is a little smaller. I'll post the page actual size later on when I can get to my stuff.

[Redcrow]

I then ink the page with several different tools. The figure are inked with a Winsor & Newton series 7 brush size 2, with Higgins Black Magic india ink. The objects are inked with a 107 hawk quill dip pen, and smaller details are done with a 102 crow quill and a 005 Pigma Micron. Lately I've been using a Faber Castell PITT brush pen for the larger figures since it forces me to make thicker lines. The lettering is done with a Koh-I-Noor .50 technical pen filled with india ink. Here is the finished page scanned in color mode:

I like the fact that you do your own lettering. Seems like 99% of webcomic artists insert MS fonts, usually Comic Sans MS.

During my learning process I've been mostly using Pigma Micron sizes 1, .05, and .005.

[Tangywolf]

Comic Sans is awful and I hate it. Hand-lettering is the way to go.

[Pravus]

How long does it take?

[Redcrow]

Comic Sans is awful and I hate it. Hand-lettering is the way to go.

Ever get the impression they tried do design it after the lettering in old Superman comics?

[Yeahduff]

Me and my friend were discussing it in chat and we're baffled by how clean the pages turn out, despite being done traditionally. She thought it was done digitally, but I had to tell her otherwise. But now I'm curious. So like, what's the comic process?

Shush, it'll go to his head.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

I'm afraid it went straight to my pants, you jerkoff.

My sister's fiancé is a professional illustrator, so while they were visiting over Christmas, he gave me an extended critique and gave many suggestions for what I could fix and/or change. One thing he suggested was to make everything cleaner and ditch the hatching. I was spending a lot of time making marks everywhere, but not really defining the objects. So he said to really draw things out and emphasize interlocking shapes. That's why there's a hugh change right at the start of the current story. Recently he told me to make my brush marks even thicker, so the last few pages have thicker lines now. I've been checking out Jeff Smith's "Bone," which has nice brush strokes and looks incredibly clean. He also gave me a David Cooper book called "Crumple." The art is simple, but the shapes are defined. I think he was a background designer for Futurama.

[Tangywolf]

I definitely agree with the idea of using thicker lines. I've always been a fan of thick lines, like the ones in Okami.

[Redcrow]

Early in my drawing/learning process, I was afraid of thick lines because it looks bad if your control isn't good. Gradually I'm getting over that.

In the following graphic novel page, you can't help notice the very thick outline around the characters. It seems to work, though.

http://www.rcsitravel.net/

[Tangywolf]

Yes, I like that style.

[Pravus]

Me too. Like he comic too. Something to replace Aldus Maycombe...

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

What's wrong with Aldus? Besides the fact it hasn't updated in ages.

[Pravus]

Exactly